NoisyPC

Bring the glorious chaos of the 90s back to your modern Linux machine.

NoisyPC is a small Linux utility that plays retro computer sounds—like hard drive clicks, modem screeches, and fan whines—based on real system activity. It's like installing a sound skin for your PC that turns disk I/O, CPU load, and more into an ambient nostalgia trip.

Remember when opening a file sounded like opening a file? Yeah, I do too.

---

🧰 Features

• 💽 Plays hard drive seek/spin sounds based on real disk access
• 📡 Optional modem screech on network activity (coming soon)
• 🧠 Customizable sound themes (HDD, modem, CPU, etc.)
• 🔧 Lightweight Python script that runs quietly in the background
• ☠️ Zero actual impact on performance or I/O—it’s all fake noise, for fun

---

🔧 Installation

1. Install Dependencies

You'll need Python 3 and ffplay from the ffmpeg package:

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S ffmpeg

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install ffmpeg

# Fedora
sudo dnf install ffmpeg

2. Clone the Repo

git clone https://github.com/rozodru/noisypc.git
cd noisypc

3. Add Some Sounds

Create the sound directory and drop in some .wav or .mp3 files:

mkdir -p ~/.config/noisypc/sounds/hdd
cp ./sounds/hdd1.wav ~/.config/noisypc/sounds/hdd/

You can find retro PC sound effects from:

• https://freesound.org
• https://archive.org/details/RetroComputerSounds

4. Run It

python3 noisypc.py

Or make it executable:

chmod +x noisypc.py
./noisypc.py

---

📁 Directory Structure

~/.config/noisypc/
  └── sounds/
        └── hdd/
              ├── hdd1.wav
              ├── hdd2.wav
              └── ...

---

⚙️ Configuration (Coming Soon)

In the next release: config file support for:

• Disk device selection
• Volume and cooldown
• Sound themes
• Toggling features

---

🧠 Why?

Because silent computers are boring.
Because SSDs are too fast.
Because we miss the sound of our machine doing something.

---

💡 Roadmap

• Disk I/O-triggered HDD sounds
• Network activity-triggered modem sounds
• CPU load-triggered fan or coil whine
• Config file support (TOML/YAML)
• GUI/TUI toggle or system tray icon
• Theme packs: IBM, Gateway, Packard Bell

---

👤 Author

andrew@andmc.ca
Retro computing enthusiast, Linux tinkerer, chaos enjoyer.

---

🧡 Contributing

PRs welcome! Especially if you:

• Want to add new sound trigger types
• Have a great archive of retro sounds
• Can build out systemd or autostart support

---

📜 License

MIT License.
Make noise, not spyware.